Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2

What works

Scope of testing:

• Original genuine serial number and personal backup copies of the original CDs. This will require a no-CD patch and complicates the installation. See workarounds below. 
• Single player campaign only. No multiplayer tested. 

Working:

• Single player campaign. Tested first two Allied missions. 
• 1920x1080 and 1280x720 resolutions. Must be configured in ra2.ini; see workaround. 
• Game saving and loading. 
• Single player skirmish setup and game start. I did not finish a skirmish match.
• Cutscene movies work perfectly. Sound works perfectly. 
• No noticeable performance issues. No mouse or keyboard lag. Works better than I remember from the 2000s. 

What does not

Periodic crash due to

err:ntdll:RtlpWaitForCriticalSection section 01A40EF8 "?" wait timed out in thread 0104, blocked by 0024, retrying (60 sec) 

This does not appear to be linked to a specific portion of the game, as I can reload a save game and continue past the previous crash point. The error happens infrequently enough that I expect to be able to finish the campaign by saving my game more often than normal and reloading. 

Workarounds

Must be installed to a 32-bit wine prefix.

The CD installer crashed, but the method linked here worked well. Steps modified for Wine are summarized below, using the default prefix. 

1. Create the install folder: ~/.wine/drive_c/Westwood/RA2
2. From the Allied CD, copy maps01.mix and movies01.mix
3. From the Soviet CD, copy maps02.mix and movies02.mix
4. From either CD, copy multi.mix, theme.mix, wdt.mix
5. From the INSTALL folder of either CD, copy rmcache/ and all items, Taunts/ and all items, BINKW32.DLL, blowfish.dll (note name change to lowercase "b"), Blowfish.tlb, game.exe, mph.exe, ra2.exe, Ra2.tlb , language.mix (extract from GAME1.CAB), and ra2.mix (extract from Game1.CAB)
6. Install the registry entries listed below (typically load them into ra2.reg file and then use `wine regedit` to import). Replace the CDKEY with your CD key, no spaces. 
7. Download the 1.06 patch (C&C Labs link) to the install folder then run with `wine ~/.wine/drive_c/Westwood/RA2/RA21006EN.EXE`. If the default directory is not identified, the updater should ask you to locate ra2.exe.
8. Download the XWIS no-CD patch (XWIS link). Do not run the installer. Using an archive manager like 7-zip, extract game.exe, ra2.exe, and xwis.dll to the RA2 install folder, overwriting the previous versions. 

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Westwood]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Westwood\Red Alert 2]
"Name"="Red Alert 2"
"InstallPath"="C:\\Westwood\\RA2\\ra2.exe"
"SKU"=dword:00002100
"Version"=dword:00010006
"Serial"="CDKEY"
"Expansions"=dword:00000001
"BuddyInstalled"=dword:00000001
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Westwood\WOLAPI\8448]
"Name"="Red Alert 2"

The install method above will allow the game to run through the intro movies, but the menu does not load. This is solved by substituting ts-ddraw.dll for the wine builtin. 

1. Download the TS-DDRAW version of ddraw.dll (CnCNet Github Link) to the RA2 install folder. 
2. Use winecfg to set the "ddraw" library to "native (Windows)"

Changing resolution in-game does not work. The confirmation buttons are not visible. Changing resolution in the configuration file works well. Edit "~/.wine/drive_c/Westwood/RA2/ra2.ini" [Video] section to show the correct ScreenWidth and ScreenHeight, in pixels; 1920x1080 and 1280x720 tested and working.

What was not tested

Multiplayer was not tested. The link in the installation workaround has notes for XWIS or CnCNet multiplayer, but these were beyond my desire to replay the campaign. Single player skirmish was briefly tested. I did not complete the campaign; I did complete the first two Allied missions as a test.

Hardware tested

Graphics:

• GPU: Intel
• Driver: open source

Additional Comments